A thin strip of lacquered steel perched atop a small wooden base has a special place of honour in Doug Lumley’s Tsawwassen office.
Lumley, who runs PPL Legal Care of Canada, knows the metal well, and the shape it has been expertly fashioned into.
It bears the silhouette of HMCS Terra Nova, a Restigouche class destroyer he served aboard as a diver from 1970 to 1974. The ship was built in Victoria in 1959 and served until her decommissioning in 1997. She now sits in the late stages of being salvaged for scrap metal in Halifax, Nova Scotia by Aecon Fabco.
But before she is gone forever two of Lumley’s former shipmates, Paul Legacy and Larry Zelinski, managed last spring to get mementos made from the vessel’s hull plates—faithful reproductions of the Terra Nova’s profile.
Keen to keep an informal reunion of former crew going every year or so, Zelinsky and Legacy were invited to Halifax to tour the Terra Nova last year.
"They simply amazed the people there when they were telling them where they bunked and drew their last 'tot,' a two and a half ounce of rum that was given to each crew member," Lumley says.
The pair had asked if sections of the hull could be retrieved as keepsakes
“They (Aecon Fabco) used a water jet to cut the plates, and at a gathering of about 22 former crew at Paul’s home on the island they were given out,” says Lumley, who knows the ship’s steel underbelly intimately.
As a diver it was his job to be part of a team that inspected the hull of the Terra Nova on a daily basis.
Part of Lumley’s time onboard the Terra Nova was deployed during the Vietnam war to serve as an alternate means of evacuating peace keeping troops from Saigon.
“We were at a current state of wartime readiness,” says Lumley, adding checking for mines on the ship’s hull was routine.
Luckily, the only trouble he ran into on the inspections was the sting of a jellyfish while tied up in Hong Kong Harbour.
“Because of the temperature of the water we didn’t wear wet suits. We used coveralls,” Lumley says, adding he suffered multiple stings around his neck and had to make it to the surface quickly for treatment.
That’s one of the stories Lumley shared with former crew mates when the hull plaques were presented.
Two larger plaques were given to the widow of the Terra Nova's captain, Lawrence Dzioba who passed away in 2007.
He managed to get a second plaque and donated it to the Ladner branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.
It’s a great legion and a real shrine for military memorabilia,” Lumley says. “I know they don’t have a lot of room to display stuff, but I found a place for it in front of the big TV where everyone could see it.”